Is there anybody out there? UFO conference draws believers

Saturday

Oct 26, 2013 at 9:14 PM

By George Barnes, TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

LEOMINSTER — Is there alien life out there?

If toilet paper is any measure, there could be.

At the New England UFO Conference in City Hall on Saturday, Marc D'Antonio used 117 feet of toilet paper to illustrate the how long the Earth has been around. There was enough toilet paper to go around the inside of the City Hall auditorium

Mr. D'Antonio, one of several speakers at the conference, then explained that .0001 millimeters of the paper would represent the amount of time humans have been on the planet. The fact was a way of explaining that the chance of life developing on other planets in the universe is pretty good.

The conference drew more than 170 people from as far away as North Carolina to hear some of the most prominent UFO speakers in the country talk about incidents and investigations into unidentified flying objects. Some came having seen what they believe were UFOs, others with a heavy dose of skepticism.

There were no aliens, other than two plastic blow-up replicas that members of the Mutual UFO Network had set up in the entry to the hall. The only people in costume were children who wandered in with their parents while out on the city's downtown Halloween stroll. But there were books, government reports and other items available for purchase.

The event was organized by Steve Firmani of Leominster, who has worked as a UFO investigator. Mr. Firmani said the Leominster area has been a hotbed of UFOs and listed several incidents reported in the past few years in Leominster and Fitchburg.

The event attracted people like people like Jessica Fitts of Barrington, N.H., who said she wanted to learn more about UFOs and UFO investigations.

Ms. Fitts said this was her first UFO convention.

"I've always been interested in the subject," she said.

Ms. Fitts, a graphic artist who works in video production and special effects makeup, said what got her interested were two incidents she witnessed that she cannot explain.

The first thing she saw was a flashing red-and-white object that moved so oddly she ruled out it being a satellite, an airplane or anything else with which she is familiar.

A couple of months ago she said she was driving on Route 4 in Concord, N.H., when she looked to the left and saw a large, cylindrical object low in the sky, about 200 feet from the ground. It had flashing lights.

"It just hovered there," she said. "It was crazy."

Ms Fitts said she tried to figure out what else it could have been, but nothing made sense.

"Things like that just blow my mind," she said.

Also attending was Ellen Essex of Raleigh, N.C. Ms. Essex said she has family in Massachusetts and combined family with her abiding interest in UFOs when she saw an unexplained phenomenon while on a camping trip in Maine.

Many of those attending said they became interested while being a bit skeptical. Alison Spinelli of Simsbury, Conn., is not one of them. She said she has never seen a UFO, been abducted or even seen something that had a slight chance of being a UFO. But she is a serious believer.

"I can't even tell you why I believe," she said.

Mrs. Spinelli hopes to be a UFO investigator and was excited to hear the speakers at the convention, especially Travis Walton. Mr. Walton is a logger whose book about his abduction experience was made into a movie in 1993.

Mrs. Spinelli's husband, Marco, is the exact opposite. He was not particularly thrilled to be there, but was attending to support his wife's interest.

"I come here with a lot of skepticism," he said. "I am open minded, but do I believe? No."

Nicole Kulis of Clinton had been a skeptic, but she became a believer when her husband, Erik, had her look out a window of their Clinton apartment one day. In the sky were three lights. They eventually formed a triangle and then flew straight up and out of sight.

"I can't explain what it was," she said.

Both she and her husband were at the event to hear Stanton Friedman, one of the most famous ufologists. Mr. Friedman is the person who investigated the Roswell, N.M., incident, where it is said an alien craft crashed and the wreckage and what was inside were taken away by the military. To those who study UFOs, it is believed to be a giant government coverup. The official story is what was found was a weather balloon-deflector combination.

Mr. Friedman has investigated the incident since the 1970s. He stumbled upon it while investigating another incident, didn't get far initially, and then stumbled upon it again while doing interviews in Louisiana.

Other speakers at the event included author and aerospace engineer Robert L. Schroeder; Kathleen Marden, granddaughter of Betty and Barney Hill, who were reportedly abducted in New Hampshire; and Steve Pierce, a witness to the Travis Walton abduction.

Contact George Barnes at george.barnes@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @georgebarnesTG

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